8
The Vance Group was gone.
Ethan went from a celebrated golden boy to a social pariah, a
in the online smear campaign, his reputation was utterly deary tale whispered at cocktail parties. After I exposed his role
I thought I would never see him again.
But one day, he showed up at my office building, waiting for me.
He looked like a wreck. His suit was wrinkled, he hadn’t shaved, and his eyes were bloodshot. The confident, arrogant man I once
knew was gone, replaced by a ghost.
He stepped in front of my car, forcing it to stop.
“Zoe, we need to talk.”
I lowered the window. “What is there to talk about?”
“I was wrong,” he said, his voice raspy. “I was a fool. I let Luna manipulate me. Please… give me another chance.”
I looked at him as if he were a joke. “A chance? Why on earth would I give you a chance?”
“We… we grew up together,” he pleaded, trying to play the nostalgia card. “We were engaged…”
“The engagement was terminated,” I cut him off. “Ethan, have you forgotten? You’re the one who signed the papers.”
“I can-” he said desperately, “We can get married! If you just help me, help my family get back on its feet, I’ll marry you tomorrow!”
I actually laughed out loud.
“Marry me? Ethan, what gives you the right to even say that? Your company is gone, your name is mud, and you’re drowning in debt.
What do you possibly have to offer me? Your good looks?”
His face flushed with shame, and he couldn’t speak.
“Zoe, I know you still love me,” he said, taking a deep breath and trying to put on a look of profound sincerity. “Everything you did… it
was all to get my attention, to make me regret what I lost. Well, it worked. I regret it. I truly do. Let’s start over, please.”
I stared at his delusional performance, feeling nothing but disgust.
“Ethan, you are the most pathetically overconfident man I have ever met.”
I may have been blind once, but my vision is perfect now.”
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Chapter 2
“To me, you are less than a rock on the side of the road. At least if a rock were in my way, I could kick it. But you… I wouldn’t even touch you now; you’d get me dirty.”
My words were knives, and they hit their mark. His face went ashen.
“You…”
“Get out of my sight,” I said. “And don’t ever let me see you again. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee your circumstances won’t get even worse than they are now.”
I raised the window and told my driver to go.
As we pulled away, I saw him in the rearview mirror, standing there, utterly defeated. A stray dog abandoned by its master.
Did I feel pity?
Not for a second.
He had brought all of this on himself.
You can’t go back again.
Especially not for trash.
